Now, don’t believe for a second that I’m at ALL an Eagles fan, or even a football fan at all, or even one who watches sports on television, or even one who watches television all that much, BUT! – I did watch much of “the big game” on Sunday, and I’m happy that their season is over so I don’t have to make small-talk with the plebes about how “da birds” (the local parlance for “The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team”) are doing, and if I think they’re going to go “all the way” or not (which reminds me of George Carlin’s schtick about football and gay sex metaphors).

It’s not surprising that they lost – they haven’t won their division since 1980, when I was just 4 years old – but still, you should see the hangdog faces around town. It’s as if our collective dog just died.

Let’s bury this puppy and move on.

Those wacky envelope-pushers over at href="http://www.southparkstudios.com"
title="South Park Studios Website">South
Park (Wednesdays at 10PM on href="http://www.comedycentral.com" title="Comedy Central">Comedy
Central) have done it again. In last
night’s episode, those lovable little scamps and their
fellow townspeople said the word “shit” 162 times (there
was a running animated counter during the show).
While this certainly isn’t the first time “shit” was said
on network TV, and Comedy Central, being a basic cable
channel, can pretty much show whatever their advertisers
will stomach, the now famous “Shit Episode” of the highly
popular television show does feel historic in some
way.

Does this mean that the s-word is going to
be said in other shows, or even on South Park again,
regularly? Probably not. However, hearing
“shit” said so many times, over and over again had a kind
of anesthetizing effect – it became abstract in its
repetition.

The episode’s plot involves a television show
that’s going to say “shit” on national TV, and the various
townspeople’s reaction to that event. Like the South
Park feature film ( href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305627401/joughcom"
title="Buy this film at Amazon.com">
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut) the
plot of the episode predicts the public’s reaction to the
show itself. Most critics seem to hail the episode as
“ground-breaking” or as a successful experiment in what the
public will or will not accept.

Of course, the repetition of a curse word ad
nauseam can get old very quickly unless the backbone of the
show delivers. The fifth season opener of South Park
proved one thing’s for certain – the show is still bitingly
satirical, clever, and most importantly, really fucking
funny.

alt="That's My Bush!" width="175" height="131" style="float:right;border:0;padding:10px;" />
Which brings me to a side note
about Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s (the creators of
South
Park) new live-action sitcom about President George W. Bush
called “That’s My Bush!” This show fails on so many
different levels – it contains none of the spark that made
South Park a huge hit. “That’s My Bush!” is a
situation comedy without the comedy. It has
situations that could possibly allow comedy to follow, but
situations themselves are not funny. You have to do
something with them. The writers of “That’s My Bush!”
seem to think that the mere idea of the President taking
off from work to wait for the cable guy is funny – but as
you watch the show, no jokes follow – and when they do,
they’re not funny.

I realize that maybe I’m just not “hip” – I do
get that the jokes aren’t supposed to be funny – but for a
satire on sitcoms to work the show has to first function as
a sitcom – it has to be entertaining, or else it’s just wry
commentary. If “That’s My Bush!” was also a good
show, it would be truly subversive.

But for now, I’ll stick to watching South Park
and ignore whatever shitty new show Comedy Central tries to
ride in on South Park’s coattails. Shit.